Breast Cancer Screening: Where Are We Now?

April 2, 2015 6:20 PM

3
0

Among the more important medical studies reported in recent weeks, even resulting in that rarefied "front page, above the crease" coverage by the New York Times, was a paper in JAMA indicating that the interpretation of breast biopsies is not the infallible gold standard we had hoped. The investigators found that expert pathologists often reached differing conclusions about the same biopsy sample when they reviewed it independently.

This finding has the potential to add consternation to controversy, if not quite insult to injury, as breast cancer screening succumbs to all manner of reconsideration. There has long been debate, and conflicting evidence, about the utility, impact, optimal timing, and optimal frequency of mammograp...